Cheating Is Pervasive Problem in Education, Forum Participants Say

Several speakers at a forum here last week agreed that cheating has
become a pervasive problem in the corporate world, the athletic arena,
and in schools.

The Cheating Culture, a new book by David Callahan that was
the inspiration for the forum, asserts that students are cheating more
often, more seriously, and are prodded along the path of academic
dishonesty by society, parents, and even teachers.

"We teach children not to be the best they can, but to beat who
they're competing against," Virginia Secretary of Education Belle S.
Wheelan told the group of educators and researchers gathered at the
forum. "The golden rule nowadays is that he who has the gold makes the
rules, so we want to get the gold."

'Nation of Cheaters'

The forum, called "Are We a Nation of Cheaters?," was sponsored by
the Washington-based Ethics Resource Center and the New York City-based
research and advocacy group Demos.

Ms. Wheelan told the group there are four main reasons that students
cheat, and the first one is competition. Educators and parents have
pressured students to focus solely on their grades and not on learning.
And that has created a culture in which cheating is seen as a survival
tool.

The second reason, Ms. Wheelan argued, is that students are less
prepared academically than they used to be. As a consequence, they see
cheating as their only alternative to get by in school. Poor study
habits add to the problem, the Virginia secretary said.

Ms. Wheelan said the third reason students cheat is simply that they
haven't been taught that it isn't right. She said that schools lack the
"punitive measures" needed to teach students that lesson.

"If a student cheats on a paper," she told the audience, "we tell
them to write another paper. ... We don't want to fail students on any
level."

But she said if a student is caught cheating, schools should not be
afraid to fail them for that assignment.

Lastly, Ms. Wheelan told the group that students cheat to feel "the
thrill of not getting caught."

'Whatever It Takes'

In "Cheating From the Starting Line," a chapter in The Cheating
Culture that focuses on dishonesty in the education world, the
author, Mr. Callahan, discusses two elite New York City high schools
and the pressures of getting accepted into those schools—and then
once there, getting into a top college. From cheating on a test to
parents' hiring of professional tutors—who, he suggests, often
"help" students more than they should—the atmosphere at those
schools fosters the idea that if you don't cheat, you'll get left
behind by the people who do.

The chapter says that, according to an annual survey, sponsored by
Who's Who Among American High School Students, cheating has
steadily increased over the past two decades, especially among
high-achieving students. "Young people seem to be hearing 'just say no'
about some temptations—and 'do whatever it takes' about others,"
writes Mr. Callahan, a political scientist who is a co-founder of and
the research director for Demos.

Other problems contribute to the apparent rise in cheating, forum
participants said.

Donald McCabe, a professor of management at Rutgers University in
New Brunswick, N.J., who has conducted research for decades on student
cheating, also was part of the forum.

In 2001, Mr. McCabe released a study that found that nearly half the
4,500 high school students surveyed said they believed their teachers
sometimes chose to ignore students who were cheating.

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